Not as good as last season. Last season they were sort of getting janes chemistry right. he was more likeable then hateable. They were not doing that irritating thing where they act like all the suspects are stupid and jane alone is smart.

Now they are doing it again! I keep wondering why no one goes after him at all. if he asked me about my sex life Id ask him about his. Id ask if when he sees a woman that is attractive he thinks of his wife and loses his erection. And he would deserve it. He does things for no reason other then to be cruel. Its tiring. He is tiring me out with his cruelty. Why are they making him so hateable again. I thought they got over it. Im especially getting tired of that whole doctor thing. It makes no sense at all. Medicos are usually about the nicest people anyone ever meets. People hate cops, not doctors. And people aren't wrong. Why act like the world is upside down?

CBI is tasked to investigate the murder of a prominent state senator's aid.

This episode was very entertaining and could be used as an interesting template for future story lines. While Jane and Lisbon are at the forefront, the other cast members also got some screen time of their own. The Cho and Rigsby exchange about the bathroom vs. the closet was worth watching more than once and Van Pelt's stalling tactic with the stepbrother gave her a chance to act outside of her portrayed character. Even Minelli seemed to be more engaged. The Red John theme couldn't be more evident. The mounting tension between between Jane and Bosco is almost palpable. Bosco is "circling the drain" and Jane knows it. It is only a matter of time before Bosco's arrogance and ignorance land him on the autopsy table. Hopefully, the writers will stay on task to develop the characters and not reach the climax too soon in the season.

Average.

The Mentalist is the kind of show that is good if you look at the body of work as a whole, all 25 episodes that have been made so far. But if you meticulously analyze each installment, like this one for example, things won't look that great as a lot of Patrick's behavior seemed forced, we had the same usual tease between Rigsby and Van Pelt that we all know is eventually going to happen, but nothing outstanding happened here. The show is still a must-watch for me, but this is not episodic TV and it is not like Lost or Dexter where you need to watch every single episode.

When there is a murder and thousands of suspects, you can count on Patrick Jane to narrow the odds.

Things only get tricky when you're trying to solve a crime and politicians abuse their power to seal their footprints from the sand.

Jane always carries a self absorbed ego with him and this episode was not without his grim certainty and extraordinary detective skills to discover that the cleaner wasn't so much the mopping floors, cleaning the bathroom type and was more the type to cover up a bloody murder.

I found myself torn between deciphering 'who did it?'.
The Politician and her husband were the obvious villains, but just because they didn't have the occasional heat in their marriage it didn't mean they were guilty.
The stepbrother was the decoy thrown into distract us, so he was too obvious to be the one to kill his own step sister.
The old lover unmasked by Jane was another suspect, but he was also the politicians father and this webbed episode turned into an entire chase that would have your head spinning.

When the cleaner put the knife on Jane it was rather foolish of Patrick to believe he was actually going to sit down, maybe Patrick believed he could outsmart him somehow.

The revelation of the many affairs that went on; father sleeps with daughter's lover, isn't really something you hear everyday and wasn't the favorite case of the hour, but how about holding a dead guy in an interrogation room to get everyone to fess up. Guilt reveals all and the truth can't remain hidden forever.

Now that Jane is off the Red John case, he is going all out of his way to get on Bosco's good side or his bad side as the case might be. His determination to catch the person that ripped his family from him, is like a venom that is seeping through his veins. It is the only crime he can't solve, the one thing he can't get his hands on and Bosco is just another splat in his way. At least that's why he planted a bug in Bosco's office, to get one step closer. It's almost depressing seeing a calm Patrick Jane carry so much pain.

We could depend on Rigsby and Van Pelt to add some romance and innocent flirtation to brighten this crime drama. Lisbon is often a tease when it comes to taming Jane, but it's just about time before he gets face to face with Red John, then all gloves are off.

It was a good episode, showing the writers' intention of being more inclusive in their actors' screen time. Let's hope the changes last and lead to the show evolving further.

Second episode of the new season, and I'm still not sure which direction the writers are going to take with the show. It's too early to tell. However, there were obvious signs of improvement in this episode. First of all, the Bosco-Jane confrontation continues, and Jane is definitely going to make things worse by tapping Bosco's office. How long before Bosco finds out? Or before someone handling the case file will look for the missing bug? Then all hell will break loose and the department will turn into a battlefield for these two. On the other hand, they are both smart, devoted and personally invested in the RJ case, and Bosco has obviously made some kind of breakthrough. Seeing which one of them is right will be very exciting to watch!

Secondly, the team got some initiative and some extra screen time this week. I hope it keeps up, because a strong police show needs a team with solid characters, likeable and capable of solving cases on their own. Portraying them like a bunch of rookies who wait for Patrick to solve the case for them will quickly bore the viewers. The scene with Cho and Rigsby betting on where to find the suspect, as well as the interrogation scene with Van Pelt were examples to be imitated in future episodes. You got a group of good actors, why not use them. And the Chief got some extra screen time as well, which was good because so far he doesn't stand out much as a director of a whole department. This is a very good actor who held a key part in a whole 24 season, so again, use him.

I also liked the case, the Senate was a first for The Mentalist. Of course I guessed the father had a relationship with the dead girl, but the lesbian Senator and the corpse in the interrogating room were nice touches.

Entertaining episode

The case in this episode was better portrayed than last week. Though you could guess quite early who was the murderer. But this show is not about who dunnit but how they figure it out. And that was quite entertaining, a bit slow in the beginning but with lots of action for the last 15 minutes. Who would have thought that moving Jane's beloved couch would be important to this case?
And we get to see some team interaction. Rigsby and Cho questioning the victim's stepmother and betting if her son is hiding in the closet or in the bathroom was hilarious. Van Pelt gets some more screen time, though her having to flirt with a suspect was a bit cruel. And we learn that Lisbon has to see a psychologist. She's stubbornly refusing to talk to him and I hope we get to see more of that.
And lastly – more Jane vs. Bosco. They're on a collision course and it's obvious that this is not going to end well. They're both arrogant and try to outsmart one another. The strong dislike they have for each other is already affecting their professional behavior and I'm really excited how this plays out. The only thing I'm missing in this season so far is Jane's charm – but I hope that we get that back in the next episodes.

getting better

Review:
Jane and the CBI investigate the murder of a young woman named Christine who was an intern of a female senator.
While the team and Jane are following different leads, including the senator's husband, the intern's stepmother and stepbrother and the senator's husband as suspects, Lisbon has an appointment with the department shrink because of the events at the end of season 1 and Jane is trying to find out what new evidence Bosco has on the Red John case.
By pretending to have evidence that leads to the intern's killer Jane is able to lure out a private investigator, hired by the real killer, who wired the phones in the CBI office to interfere with the investigation. As it turns out the intern had an affair with the senator herself. When the senator found out Christine was also sleeping with her father she followed her to confront her but murdered her out of anger and frustration. To cover it up she called her father who hired the PI.
At the end of the episode Jane enters Bosco's office and brings him doughnuts as a peace offering and says he trusts him to catch Red John, but actually uses the doughnuts as a diversion in order to plant one of the bugs he found (wired by the PI) underneath the table and listens in to the conversation Bosco has with his team on the Red John case.

Thoughts:
It's getting better again. In the first two episodes we saw Jane being more obsessed than ever with Red John, which I think was handled better in season 1. The fact that the senator was the killer was obvious from the scene where Jane pointed out the obvious - that the "happy couple" wasn't so happy after all, but that aside I still enjoyed watching the episode. It had a good "flow" and I like the fact they showed us that Lisbon is not handling the fact that she almost got shot very well.
While the first episode of season 2 reminded me completely of the first episode in S1, I think this episode did a good job delivering us a new case. I liked the twist at the end when they used the dead guy to make the senator confess to everything. I hope the show keeps progressing, I loved season 1.

Mildly entertaining...

The moment they introduced Walter Crew, I guess most of us knew he is the killer. But yes, come to think of it - this is best you can ever get from shows like Mentalist or Psych. Patrick Jane continues with his wisecrack way of solving crimes, and makes heinous insults and gets away with it. Then there was the usual twist to the story by making the step brother look like a convincing suspect, enough to satisfy Lisbon and Co. to seal the case. I did like the final scene where Jane takes cues from case and decides to bug Bosco's office. Nice, but we need more of Red John to stimulate some interest.

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